As parent ospreys circled overhead and shrieked, the licensed Louisiana wildlife volunteer lifted the chick gently from the messy, four-foot-wide nest of sticks and handed it to the boat's operator.

Rehabilitator Donna Gee then banded it and placed the bird in a plastic portable kennel.

The rising waters unleashed in parts of Louisiana by the opening of the Morganza spillway, to protect New Orleans and Baton Rouge from Mississippi River flooding, has sent people and wildlife searching for higher ground while leaving birds such as the osprey chicks at risk.

In recent days, bird rehabilitators have swooped in and rescued osprey chicks and eggs from this lake in the Atchafalaya Basin.

A guide who usually shows them to tourists and photographers got federal approval, saying the nests would soon be under water or in reach of alligators.

The group hopes to return the chicks when the floodwaters recede, part of various efforts to rescue animals injured or threatened by the floods.

The efforts follow a state alert warning people to be careful of poisonous snakes and bears that are on the move.

Other swamp dwellers — deer, raccoons and alligators among them — also are trying to stay dry.

A herd of deer and a bear were seen going under a U.S. Highway 190 bridge south of the Morganza spillway. Increased wildlife traffic prompted the cutting of the speed limit from 60 to 45 mph on Wednesday.

Extra signs have been installed at Interstate 10 exits close to the Atchafalaya and the nearby Sherburne Wildlife Management Area warning drivers, "Please Drive Carefully. Possible Wildlife Crossing."

Alligator danger
Osprey nests at the top of bald cypress trees — living and dead — are common in swamps across Louisiana. The human presence at Cow Island Lake usually is limited to camps for weekend hunters and fishers, many on a ridge created when an oil company dredged a channel in the shallow lake.

Gee, who also is trained in rescuing injured and orphaned birds, said a federal wildlife agent authorized the rescue after commercial tour guide Coerte Voorhies, 81, spotted the danger. Gee had worked with injured birds during the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Ransonet and company worked with a sense of urgency. Water was already about halfway up the 15-foot bald cypress where they found three floppy, pop-eyed chicks — the youngest taken Tuesday.

Osprey are also called sea hawks and fish eagles, but are neither hawks nor eagles. Like owls, to which they also are not related, they have a reversible outer toe that helps them grab fish from bayous and lakes. At full growth, they have wingspans of more than 6 feet.

The biggest danger to the chicks are alligators, Voorhies said.

"Alligators can jump three feet out of the water," he said. The big reptiles' tails can power them almost straight up until their hind feet trail above the water.

With luck, the water will go down soon enough so the rescued chicks can be returned to their nests while their parents are still around, said Suzie Heck of Heckhaven Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Lake Charles. She has been caring for six osprey rescued earlier by Ransonet and Gee. Thursday, Gee brought her the seven chicks and three eggs collected Tuesday.

"We knew there were eggs, but we didn't have permission to get them until today," her husband James Gee said Tuesday.

Reptile, mammal rescues
Some rescuers say the state Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has refused to let them rescue reptiles and mammals from the floods.

But Jim Lacour, state wildlife veterinarian, said the service will rescue orphaned or injured animals and turn them over to licensed rehabilitators for care.

"We do have plenty of people on the edges of the floodwaters and impending areas — making sure deer are getting out," he said.

The rescuers' first trip was only a partial success. Several nests where Voorhies and his son Kim had seen chicks were empty when they motored up to them.

"You could see gators had been there," Kim Voorhies said.

'They look good'
Beau Gast, vice president of the Louisiana Wildlife Rehabilitators Association, a statewide group of licensed volunteers, said five baby owls, a Mississippi kite and baby raccoons also had been brought from the flooded area.

Janet Mcconnaughey
/
AP

An osprey chick too young even to sit up is weighed at the home of wildlife rehabilitator Donna Gee of Youngsville, La., on March 17, 2011.

But Heck said they probably were blown out of trees by storms about the time the floodway was opened. She's caring for more than 100 baby animals now.

At the Gees' in Youngsville, she and Ransonet weighed the newly rescued birds and gave them infant oral hydration solution by syringe, through narrow tubes inserted into their crops.

"They look good," Donna Gee said as she gently extended a wing.

The youngest were eating by Wednesday, and the older ones finally took food on their own Thursday morning, she said.

The six birds brought in last week are doing fine, Heck said. She said they were so young they were just starting to show pinfeathers — perhaps four to 10 days old when they arrived.

The first three found Tuesday appeared to be about a month old, Gee said. They looked almost like floppy plush toys, with whitish bellies and brown backs with a white stripe down the middle. The two oldest could stand. One of them bit her finger, making her smile.

Said James Gee: "The best part is when they fly off."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

City surveyor Tony Moon works on a makeshift levee on the edge of the flooding Mississippi River with the temporarily shuttered Isle of Capri riverboat casino behind him, Friday, May 20 in Natchez, Miss. The river was forecast to crest at 62.1 feet, the highest level in Natchez recorded history.
(Mario Tama / Getty Images)
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Haley English, 7, cries into the arms of her mother, Naomi English, as she looks toward her submerged house in Vicksburg, Miss., on May 20.
(Rogelio V. Solis / AP)
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A precautionary sign warning of flooding is almost covered by Mississippi River floodwaters along the road to LeTourneau Technologies, in Vicksburg, Miss., on May 20.
(Rogelio V. Solis / AP)
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Workers build a 16-foot makeshift levee to protect the 100-year-old JM Jones Lumber Company on the edge of the flooding Mississippi River on May 20 in Natchez, Miss.
(Mario Tama / Getty Images)
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A corrections officer motors through floodwaters to pick up prisoners helping sandbag against the flooding in Vidalia, La., on May 19.
(Gerald Herbert / AP)
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Floodwaters from the Yazoo River creep across crops near Yazoo City, Miss., on May 19. The Yazoo backed up because of Mississippi River flooding.
(Dave Martin / AP)
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Guy and Diane Creekmore check out their flooded home on May 18 in Vicksburg, Miss. The Creekmores take daily trips out to see the damage to their home, which is currently filled with about 4 feet of floodwater. They also feed the possums and a raccoon that have been stranded on the roof of their home.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
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A member of the Army Corps of Engineers looks over sandbags along the rising Mississippi River in Natchez, Miss., on Wednesday, May 18. Cargo was slowly moving along the bloated Mississippi River after a costly daylong standstill.
(Gerald Herbert / AP)
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Louisiana Army National Guard Sgt. Michael Leehy inspects new makeshift levee modifications on May 17 in Morgan City. The Morganza Spillway floodgates were opened for the first time in nearly forty years and have succussfully lowered the crest of the flooding Mississippi River, but towns like Morgan City expect to get hit by some of the diverted water.
(Mario Tama / Getty Images)
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Farmers work as floodwaters from the Mississippi River creep across their fields in Natchez, Miss., on May 17. Heavy flooding from Mississippi tributaries has displaced more than 4,000 in the state, about half of them upstream from Natchez in the Vicksburg area.
(Dave Martin / AP)
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April Bordelon helps her brother Justin Reech move a load of belongings from his home in Big Bend, La., into a community known as Canadaville, in Simmesport, La., on May 16. The community was formerly used by Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
(Gerald Herbert / AP)
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Brenda Hynum hugs her daughter Debra Emery as they watch floodwaters rise around Emery's mobile home in Vicksburg, Miss., on May 16. A sand berm around the trailer failed in the night and floodwaters from the rising Mississippi river rushed in. "We tried so hard to stop it. It goes from anger to utter disbelief that this could happen. I just want to go home," Emery said.
(Dave Martin / AP)
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A woman in Stephensville, La., ties sandbags on May 15 as people throughout the region race to protect their homes from rising floodwaters due to the opening of the Morganza Spillway.
(Sean Gardner / Reuters)
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Giant whirlpools the size of cars develop along the Atchafalaya River on May 15 due to the opening of the Morganza Spillway. Deputies warned people to get out as Mississippi River water gushing from floodgates for the first time in four decades crept ever closer to communities in Louisiana Cajun country.
(P.C. Piazza / The Lafayette Daily Advertiser via AP)
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Brittany Pearce, left, wipes her eyes while taking a break with Leanna Gresco after a long day of throwing sandbags in front of Pearce's grandparents' house in Stephensville, La. on, May 15.
(Sean Gardner / Reuters)
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National Guardsman Spec. Lionel Lefleur stands guard on top of a levee checking vehicles trying to enter town, May 15, in Butte LaRose, La. The National Guard was trying to allow only residents trying to evacuate their homes into the town.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
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Brittany Ryder, 11, looks on as family members clear out their house during a mandatory evacuation, May 15, in Melville, La.
(Mario Tama / Getty Images)
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Mary Williams, right, looks on as family members pack the contents of her home, where she has lived since 1948, during a mandatory evacuation order, May 15, in Krotz Springs, La.
(Mario Tama / Getty Images)
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Arionne Ruffin, 7, pushes her cousin Josh Ruffin, 3, in a toy car while Alexis Rhodes, 8, plays in front of her family's home, May 15, in Bayou Black, La. The Rhodes, who have sandbagged around their home, purchased the house in February and are anxious about the impending flooding.
(Julia Rendleman / The Houma Courier via AP)
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Water diverted from the Mississippi River spills through a bay in the Morganza Spillway in Morganza, La., May 14. Water from the inflated Mississippi River gushed through a floodgate Saturday for the first time in nearly four decades and headed toward thousands of homes and farmland in the Cajun countryside, threatening to slowly submerge the land under water up to 25 feet deep.
(Patrick Semansky / AP)
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Flood waters from the Mississippi River pour over a levee on the Yazoo River, a tributary to the Mississippi River, north of Vicksburg, Miss., May 13. Thousands of residents who live along or near the river from Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana have been forced to evacuate, and thousands of acres of prime farmland have been covered by the record-setting rising waters.
(Chris Todd / EPA)
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City workers transport sandbags past the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Station on May 12, in Vicksburg, Miss. The historic station is near the Mississippi River but the rest of downtown is on a bluff above.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
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Residents of Vicksburg, Miss., take advantage of the raised railroad tracks north of the city to fish in the Mississippi River flood waters late Thursday, May 12. The fishermen along the tracks were treated to the sight of a 10-foot long alligator swimming in the waters.
(Rogelio V. Solis / AP)
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Mobile homes sit in water as high as their rooftops near Watkins, Tenn., May 10.
(Mike Brown / The Commercial Appeal via Zuma Press)
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Workers look for minor imperfections to correct before pinning down high density polyethylene covering on the backside of the Yazoo Backwater Levee in Vicksburg on May 10. The cover will act as a barrier if overtopping occurs and will inhibit backside erosion of the levee.
(Sean Gardner / Reuters)
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The Mississippi River in Memphis, Tenn., as seen on April 21, 2010 in the satellite image on the left, and during it's crest on May 10, 2011, at right. The river reached 47.8 feet, just under the record of 48.7 feet set in 1937. Mud Island river park can be seen in the upper right corner.
(NASA)
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Melvina Jones carries a mirror through floodwaters as the swelling Mississippi River begins to surround her sister's home in Vicksburg, Miss. on Tuesday, May 10.
(Sean Gardner / Reuters)
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This industrial facility was flooded by the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tenn., on May 10. The river earlier that day crested in Memphis just short of its 1937 record.
(Dan Anderson / EPA)
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Water covers a gravestone, May 9, in Luxora Ark. The town sits along the Mississippi River where the water level is currently higher than the level of the town causing the ground to be saturated and leaving nowhere for the water in the town to drain.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
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(Left) Workers use a crane to remove some of the Bonnet Carre Spillway's barriers in Norco, La. on May 9 in anticipation of rising floodwater. The spillway, which the Corps built about 30 miles upriver from New Orleans in response to the great flood of 1927, was last opened during the spring 2008. Monday marked the 10th time it has been opened since the structure was completed in 1931. The spillway diverts water from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain.

A cell block is seen alongside an inner levee along the Mississippi River at Angola State Prison in West Feliciana Parish, La. on May 9. A convoy of buses and vans transferred inmates with medical problems from Angola, which is bordered on three sides by the Mississippi River.
(Patrick Semansky / AP)
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Reggie Smith wears a sandbag on his head in an effort to keep dry in a steady rain as he works to fill sandbags outside the RiverTown condominiums on May 7 on Mud Island in Memphis, Tenn.
(Jeff Roberson / AP)
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Jerry Brooks wades through his yard on May 6 in Bogota, Tenn. Heavy rains have left the ground saturated, rivers swollen, and have caused widespread flooding in Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
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James Dunn gives his grandson Caleb Walker a paddle boat ride down the middle of a flooded street near his home on May 5 in Metropolis.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
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Mississippi wildlife agent Hugh Johnson walks past a dead whitetail buck in Greenville, Miss., on May 5. Johnson said herds of deer, coyotes, some wild hogs and other wildlife are swimming to Greenville because of flooding on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River. This deer broke its neck when it tried to run through a chain fence.
(Rogelio V. Solis / AP)
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James Strayhorn carries groceries through a flooded neighborhood back to his home in Tiptonville, Tenn. on May 4. Heavy rains have left the ground saturated and have caused widespread flooding in Missouri, Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky and Arkansas.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
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Rita Gieselman leads the way as Phil Vanover follows after checking on his home in the 100 block of Chestnut Street in Rumsey, Ky. on May 4.
(John Dunham / AP)
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Debbie Ricketts, left, and her Point Township, Ind., neighbors, Bill, center, and Hank Cox basked in the sun on their old grain bin cement foundation that they dubbed "Gilligan's Island," on the afternoon of May 4.
(Denny Simmons / The Evansville Courier & Press via AP)
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Volunteers fill sandbags at the Pyramid Arena to prepare for rising floodwaters from the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tenn. on May 4. The National Weather Service is predicting a 48-foot crest of the Mississippi River on May 11.
(Lance Murphey / AP)
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David Lucas, left, and Lauren Lucas, right, comfort Carla Jenkins, owner of Vidalia Dock and Storage Co., after deciding to evacuate her business in Vidalia, La. on May 3 due to the threat of the predicted Mississippi River flood.
(Eric J. Shelton / The Natchez Democrat via AP)
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Floodwater engulfs a home near Wyatt, Mo., on May 3, after the Army Corps of Engineers blew a massive hole in a levee at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to divert water from the town of Cairo, Illinois. The diversion flooded about 130,000 acres of Missouri farmland and 100 homes.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
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Roy Presson embraces his daughters Catherine and Amanda as they stand on the edge of State Highway HH looking out at their family farm in Wyatt, Mo., on Tuesday. The Presson home and 2,400 acres of land that they farmed was flooded by an engineered levee break.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
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An explosion lights up the night sky as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blows an 11,000-foot hole in the Birds Point levee in Mississippi County, Mo. on Monday. The breach lowered the flood levels at Cairo, Illinois, and other communities.
(David Carson / St. Louis Post-Dispatch via EPA)
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James Bindon waits for more loads of sand to be delivered to the riverfront in Vidalia, La., on May 9. Crews planned to use the sand to fill temporary levees in preparation for the predicted Mississippi River flood.
(Ben Hillyer / The Natchez Democrat via AP)
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Volunteers hastily build a wall of sandbags along Illinois 3 on May 8 in the community of Olive Branch.
(Alan Rogers / The Southern Illinoisan via AP)
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Anna Mayhood leaped to safety from her vehicle after the Broad Street Bridge collapsed beneath it on April 27 in Moriah, N.Y. Authorities said flooding closed nearly 60 roads across the Adirondacks, most of them in Essex County, scene of some of the worst damage.
(Lohr Mckinstry / The Press Republican via AP)
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Kenny Back pulls a boat with his sister Jessica Capp and wife Theresa Back to collect belongings from their parents' flooded home on April 27 in Old Shawneetown, Illinois.
(Stephen Rickerl / The Southern via AP)
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Volunteers place sandbags atop a temporary levee to fight back floodwaters as lightning from a thunderstorm is seen in the background on April 26, in Dutchtown, Mo.
(Jeff Roberson / AP)
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Four houses are surrounded by floodwaters from the Current River just outside Doniphan, Mo., on April 26. The area received several inches of rain in previous days.
(Paul Davis / Daily American Republic via AP)
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A rail service vehicle and a pickup sit stranded in floodwaters from the Black River south of Poplar Bluff, Mo., on April 25.
(Paul Davis / Daily American Republic via AP)
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Residents of Oak Glen Residential Community are assisted by rescue personnel as rising waters from a nearby creek forced them to evacuate their homes in Johnson, Ark., on April 25.
(Beth Hall / AP)
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Leon Gentry looks out over floodwaters that surround his garage after he spent the morning working to secure what he could from the rising water in Henderson, Ky., on April 25.
(Mike Lawrence / The Gleaner via AP)
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Kim Mada loads equipment into a truck to avoid rising water at Falcon Floats in Tahlequah, Okla., on April 25.
(Matt Barnard / Tulsa World via AP)
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Butler County, Mo., Sheriff Mark Dobbs stands on a levee along the Black River, right, on April 25, where floodwaters were running over into adjacent farmland southeast of Poplar Bluff. The levee broke in this location during a 2008 flood.
(Paul Davis / Daily American Republic via AP)
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Kasey Medley, right, stands on the front porch of her flooded home with her friend Erica Cass in Poplar Bluff, Mo., on April 26.
(Jeff Roberson / AP)
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Editor's note:
This image contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing.

Video: Communities on guard for Mississippi River floods

Transcript of: Communities on guard for Mississippi River floods

DAVID GREGORY, anchor (Washington, DC):Now to the
Mississippi River
flood. The slow-moving disaster is set to hit areas in the path of the spillway that was opened last week. But there is some good news. The
National Weather Service
today lowered its flood crest forecast for
Butte LaRose
,
Louisiana
, by two and a half feet. Here's NBC's
Anne Thompson
.

ANNE THOMPSON reporting:The floodwater from the
Mississippi
is a silent menacing stalker here in
Louisiana
, today blocking this road to the
Sherburne Wildlife Management
area in the
Morganza Spillway
.

Unidentified Man:It should have been drowning.

THOMPSON:The water's already claiming deer and creating new places for alligators to swim.
On the other side
of the
Atchafalaya
, some homes closest to the river are in it, while those
on the other side
of the levee in
Krotz Springs
are dry. With almost everyone evacuated, the
Louisiana National Guard
is ready for what comes next.

Mr. KENNETH BAILLIE (Louisiana Army National Guard):Our hope is that
this is an exercise
in preparedness and an exercise in coming to the aid of a community that, frankly, our hope is that we never have to execute.

THOMPSON:Vicksburg,
Mississippi
, still needs help. This week the river set a new record, reaching 57.1 feet, some 14 feet above
flood stage
. Here
Martha Haggard
can barely see the home she bought in
2004
, now submerged in fetid water.

Mr. TYLER:Excuse the mess, but can kind of get kind of hectic. It was mandatory evacuation. It was just hard to do it. I'm sorry.

THOMPSON:The flooded
Mississippi
now rolls south at 13 miles an hour, more than double its normal speed. This historic amount of freshwater is beginning to impact some of
Louisiana
's delicate oyster beds still trying to recover from four hurricanes in five years and last year's
BP
oil spill.

Mr. RANDY PAUSINN (Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries):If the oysters die, well, we lose that from market this year. However, that's reef material for new oysters to grow on for next year.

THOMPSON:And there is more trouble on the
Mississippi
tonight. A segment of the river is closed near
Baton Rouge
after some barges broke loose and three sank.
The Coast Guard
is investigating.
David
: